Coronation Street’s Jennie McAlpine reveals how the real John Stape reacted to Jade being his secret daughter
“John Stape was actually trending again!”
The spectre of Coronation Street serial killer John Stape haunts the cobbles in the form of his unstable secret daughter Jade Rowan (Lottie Henshall), who has hidden her true identity as she avenges her dead dad by destroying his ex-wife Fiz Stape (Jennie McAlpine).
November’s reveal of nasty nanny Jade’s true identity sparked a wave of nostalgia for the character, including from the man himself, as McAlpine revealed to RadioTimes.com.
“The night we found out who Jade really was, John Stape was trending!” she laughs. “I took a screen grab of that and sent it to Graeme Hawley who played him – he replied with: ‘Still got it!’, he was quite pleased about that.
“Everybody flipping loved John Stape, didn’t they? It was great how sort of daft it was with Fiz not noticing all those dead bodies, so the fact he’s back in this guise is brilliant.
“We don’t know at this stage how much Jade knows about her dad, or whether she ever knew him, but the traits she has of his are uncanny. You can see she is her father’s daughter, doing bad things for what she thinks are the right reasons.”
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Duplicitous Jade has got her feet well and truly under the table to frame Fiz and partner Tyrone Dobbs (Alan Halsall) as unfit parents so she can take half-sister Hope away.
On Wednesday 8thJanuary Jade’s masterplan comes together when her machinations lead to social services getting involved and putting Hope and Ty’s daughter Ruby into foster care.
“Fiz is not suspicious at all, she and Tyrone were so happy when Jade first arrived and was this magic Mary Poppins creature who sorted everything,” continues McAlpine. “They really started to believe they were bad parents. The only person onto the truth so far is Evelyn…”
Nerdy nice guy Stape was one of the most unlikely multiple murderers in soap history, stumbling into a killing spree by a series of unfortunate misunderstandings and all because he wanted to get his teaching job back, having been fired for romancing pupil Rose Webster.
He was killed off eight years ago but Jade is continuing his legacy. Does that mean she too will end up accidentally bumping people off before long?
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